Clever & D-Whale's reworked U.S.S. Excelsior

[sgoti]

Originally Posted by THE DC

How do you get a font for the name on the starship?

I owned the old PC font set but none work with my much newer Mac.

Also, noe had red outline around the ship's name.

Just curious...

BTW: Please post a build page for both the Excelsior and Roman!!!


Love to see it.

Years ago I has a collection of fonts that came on a floppy for $30 (the fact that it came on a floppy should tell you HOW long ago!).

One of the fonts was named "Red Alert", and had the sans-serif with outline look of the hull lettering from TMP (and all later movies), NG, DS9, VOY, etc.

Sometime later I learned that the base typeface used was called "Microgramma Bold Extended". Same style as used in Star Trek, just without outline.

I tried finding my original "Red Alert" font, but could not. However, I did find this:

https://www.azfonts.net/load_font/sfbold.html

Looks very similar, but I have not had a chance to do a close examination to see if it is accurate or if liberties have been taken.

I was asking what software you used to try and give you tips on getting the red outline. Because of the way fonts work, you will never be able to get an out-of-the=box solution that automatically gives you black with red outline.

When I first started playing with the Star Trek-style lettering, it was for decals for a model train diesel locomotive lettered for the "Newton Copper Company" and numbered 1701 (see what I did there?).

All I had at the time was Photoshop Elements (raster-based program). So, I created the lettering in black, then used the wand selector to select the black outlines and then filled them with red.

Then I discovered Adobe Illustrator, and the fantastic "Create Outlines" command under the Type menu, which converts fonts to editable paths. Type your lettering (along with kerning and other tweaks), convert to paths, break the compound paths and groups apart, change the color of the outline to red, and you're done.

I think CorelDraw has similar abilities, it's been ages since I've used that. Inkscape will allow you to do the same thing, but I found the menu commands a little tricky (I think mainly because I'm so used to Illustrator).

One other trick if your software allows you to define fill and stroke colors:
1) Create your lettering with the Microgramma Bold Extended font. (Spacing, curves, etc.)
2) Create a second layer above this and copy/paste the lettering into this second layer.
3) On the lower layer, give the lettering a red fill and red stroke. Give the stroke a value something like 3 points.
4) On the upper layer, give the lettering a black fill and a stroke color that matches whatever color you are using for the hull. Give the stroke a value 1-2 points less than the value of the red stroke above.

You will have to play around with the stroke values some, but it's possible to bet the black, none (hull color), then red colors of the lettering. One downside I discovered was that if you changed the lettering size you then had to redo the values for the stroke colors.

I'm surprised the old PC font won't work on the Mac- I thought when OS X was introduced both Mac and PC fonts were usable (although that's been ages ago as well...)

Do you still have the font? I wonder if you could open it in FontForge and create a Mac-compatible version for yourself...

Good luck!

[THE DC]

In do have that set around. I'll need to find something that will read a floppy and then maybe email the contents to a more modern computer?

I might have to invest in Adobe Illustrator, or Corel, after your suggestions.

Your ideas about reddening the outline seem clever!

[sgoti]

Originally Posted by THE DC

In do have that set around. I'll need to find something that will read a floppy and then maybe email the contents to a more modern computer?

I might have to invest in Adobe Illustrator, or Corel, after your suggestions.

Your ideas about reddening the outline seem clever!

I'm also on 10.13.6, so I'll offer a few comments...

1) I have both Illustrator CS3 and CS5 installed on my computer. Both appear to work fine, even though Adobe claims they won't. I was using CS2, but it did quit working when I upgraded to 10.10 or 10.11 years ago (I think it was around that time. Maybe when I went to Sierra?)

2) CS6 was the last version you could install and that was it. After CS6, Adobe went to their "CC" (Creative Cloud) subscription-based model. You can pay by the month or yearly. Not worth it for what I've been doing.

3) As for CorelDraw, the Corel corporation *just* reintroduced a Mac version. It is currently $499(!). If you are eligible, an academic version is available. Be advised, though, that Corel has consistently offered more features in their Windows version than Mac. They continue the tradition with this new release, unfortunately (more on that later). A 15-day trial download is available.

4) I have Windows versions of CorelDraw 10, 11, and X3. I have been able to get 11 working under WINE on the Mac. X3 had some issues, and I never bothered trying with 10.

5) On a linux computer, I was able to get 11 and X3 working just fine. Go figure...

6) One of the missing features from any Mac version of CorelDraw is, ironically, the ability to export to a True-Type Font file. I do sporadic font work, so this feature was important to me. Really disappointed when I downloaded the Corel Graphics Suite 2020 trial and discovered font creation wasn't in the cards (on a Mac, anyway).

Note: Even though CorelDraw on windows can export to a True-Type font file, I still end up taking that font and running it through FontForge to do some clean-up and tweaking before I have my "finished product".

7) I have also run CorelDraw 10, 11, and X3 under Windows by utilizing a virtual Machine. Of course, this means having a Windows 2000 or XP install disc (and doing all kinds of gymnastics to create and installed-but-not-yet-first-run version of an XP machine. Tedious, and why I looked at WINE).

8) Inkscape will do everything I mentioned in my other post, it just a matter of getting used to its user interface. Best of all, it's free!

9) There are other Mac vector editing programs available. I just downloaded a 90-day trial of Affinity Designer (https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/90-day-affinity-trial/), it looks very similar to CorelDraw/Illustrator. Again, my biggest comment is getting used to another interface/menu commands. Right now it is on sale for $24.99 (vs $49.99)

As with everything, your mileage may vary. If I can be of assistance with anything I will be more than happy to try.

Good luck, and be safe!

[sgoti]

Went back and (re)read the whole thread.

You guys do nice work!

[THE DC]

I'll go hunt Inkscape first and see if I can master that.

I know I have the old font discs that you mentioned, bold TOS and NXT GEN sets.

Can they be somehow lifted from the discs and updated to work on my Mac?

Thanks for your suggestions and shared insights!

Maybe we need a font-design/repair thread!

[lfuente]

Originally Posted by ennder

I remember what I did to get the red line, in Ms. Word I did all the letters and numbers in black and red, with the red ones larger then the black. I then took a screen shot, brought that into the other software that I don't have anymore. added the background color from the model, then copyed the black lettering (with a little of the background) and pasted over the red so that I got the red line.

At the time, this was the only way I could think of doing it. The software I lost had a feature that would let you bend a word any way you needed. That was how I made the curving "NCC - ######"

Also, you can download a TTF file for Ms. Word that has the Federation stile font.

Are you still using MS Word/Powerpoint for recoloring? I have some experience doing what you described. To get red (or other color) text outlines for selected text you have two options, do Format/Text Outline then select color and outline thickness - the problem is this reduces the visible portion of your inner letter color unless you enlarge or make the font bold.

The other option is to add a glow using Format/Text Effects then select glow color and thickness. The problem with this is the edges are blurry, but for small fonts this might not be noticeable.

The text curving (or other text distortion effects) is in Format/Text Effects, select Transform, and you should get a graphical menu of form options like curve up, slant down, circle, zigzag, etc.

Good luck!

[ennder]

Originally Posted by lfuente

Are you still using MS Word/Powerpoint for recoloring? I have some experience doing what you described. To get red (or other color) text outlines for selected text you have two options, do Format/Text Outline then select color and outline thickness - the problem is this reduces the visible portion of your inner letter color unless you enlarge or make the font bold.

The other option is to add a glow using Format/Text Effects then select glow color and thickness. The problem with this is the edges are blurry, but for small fonts this might not be noticeable.

The text curving (or other text distortion effects) is in Format/Text Effects, select Transform, and you should get a graphical menu of form options like curve up, slant down, circle, zigzag, etc.

Good luck!

Thank you for this valuable information, I did not know about that.